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FK: Shig, what can you tell me about your parents? Can you tell me about your parents, like when they came from Japan or why they came?

SM: Well, yeah, both are from Hiroshima. I understand my father came to Hawaii first. I don't know. I don't know him too well, 'cause he passed away when I was about five or six, something like that. Only thing I ever heard, brothers mentioned that he said there's a lot of wild pigs in Hawaii there. [Laughs] So it was a, you know, "picture bride" wedding, I guess, you know. He settled, I don't know if he had a farm already going before he got married or what, but he's quite a pioneer there on the island here. He came pretty early, I guess. He never worked at the Port Blakely mill. And he did real well in Manzanita. That's just west of the Suyematsu farm there. He's 1921 or something, he was about ready to go back to the old country already. He thought he had it made already. He got involved in this property there in Winslow there where we lived there. And kind of a long story anyway. He said Japanese was in there before he was, too, and he couldn't come up with the mortgage or something. It was money problems anyway. My father took the place over, I guess. Anyway, Wayne kind of knows about that transaction, too, 'cause the family lived at Nakatas' old place there. He's the guy that talked my father into buying that place. Well, they never did very well there in Winslow, they just eked by there, pretty poor, poor soil there, you know.

FK: So I heard that your family was the first family to start growing strawberries on the island. Is that true?

SM: Oh, I don't know about that. You know, there's a group of old families that most of the people here on the island, the old timers, really don't even know about. They kind of left real early, and probably right after the World War I or in there. Yeah, it was... I guess they never did work. Most of 'em never did work at the mill, you know. So that's the story as far as that farm there is concerned.

FK: So what year were you born?

SM: Pardon?

FK: What year were you born?

SM: 1921. Yeah, so that was about the year they moved there, I think, the family.

FK: Are you the youngest in the family?

SM: Yeah, yeah. Well, actually, birth-wise I'm not the youngest, but we had a, there was one boy in between Tatsu and me that drowned right down in the bay down there when he was about six years old. And had a couple of girls after me, and one of 'em died in childbirth there and one of 'em was, I guess, what did they call that? Probably early infant syndrome or whatever it is, you know. They both died pretty early anyway. So half of the kids are gone.

FK: And were all of you born on the island?

SM: Yeah, yeah. My oldest brother was born in Winslow, and Tatsu and me were born over there by Manzanita. Yeah, we were all born on the island.

FK: So your dad passed away?

SM: Yeah, 1927. So came there in 1921, and you could imagine how old that house is. He had to reshingle that house already in 1921, and he had somebody come in and wire the house up for electricity. There wasn't even electricity in the house. [Laughs]

FK: So was your family strawberry farming then at that time, too?

SM: Yeah. I don't know exactly where these oldtimers got the idea that strawberries would grow there on Bainbridge there. Anyway, it became a big thing there on the island, anyway.

FK: So how did the farm run then after your father passed away?

SM: Pardon?

FK: How did the farm, who ran the farm after your father passed away?

SM: I guess my mother. I guess she had a little hired help once in a while. My brother, oldest brother was about twelve or thirteen then, I guess. Especially driving the car already at thirteen years old, you know. In those days, the oldest member of the family, no matter how young they were, they were driving the cars. The Isseis weren't very proficient there, driving cars. [Laughs] So I guess she managed all those years there.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.